For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation
Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia to visit his girlfriend last fall. It was one of many trips he had taken to the US, and he was authorized to travel under a visa waiver program that allows tourists to stay in the country for 90 days.
He had planned to return to Ireland in December, but was briefly unable to fly due to a health issue, his medical records show. He was only three days overdue to leave the US when an encounter with police landed him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody.
From there, what should have been a minor incident became a nightmarish ordeal: he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out.
That’s what happens when you visit banana republics
Guess the “Luck of the Irish” ran out
“he’s been here too long, keep him here longer!”
The most conservative thing I’ve read all day
You forget that the camps are private, so they need to keep him there to get paid. 100 days seems like about enough.
Detaining people isn’t free either, we also paid to keep them here longer. The whole thing is immensely stupid.
Only if you believe their words, which you absolutely should not. A for profit prison management company got paid for 100 days detention when they would have gotten 0 if they let this guy leave.
Everything working out as planned.
Private prisons have an incentive to keep people like him in the system as long as possible.
Lives gets destroyed, everyone pay for it, money is diverted from actually useful stuff, but all this is a low price to pay for a handful of mafia bosses to get even richer.
Irish are non-white again. We’re going back to the 1800s, baby.
Look up the unjust hangings of Dominic Daley and James Halligan in 1806. There was no evidence whatsoever that they committed the murder they were accused of other than maybe being in the area at the time and even that was based on shaky grounds. The defense even had their closing statement saying that the prosecution had no evidence other than ‘aww come on! They’re Irish! You know how they’re like! Besides, someone has to hang for that murder!’
At least this (probably) white guy, who speaks the same language, got to suffer on taxpayers’ dollars. What a relief. /s
she has had European clients shocked to learn they can face serious consequences for briefly overstaying a visa.
Are people stupid? Visa says “GTFO before this date”. If you then don’t then there are consequences. It’s not that hard to understand, no?
I agree that it’s ridiculous how people treated in those jails, and that he should not have been held for 3 months, but come on…
He had a medical condition, in writing from the doctor that he couldn’t fly for 8 to 12 weeks in case of blood clogs. He notified the authorities that he might be overstaying a little without any response.
And still he got detained, the US is a banana republic led by an ape.
If the government is so incompetent that it detains someone for months because they overstayed their visa for 3 days , do you trust them to handle anything else correctly?
It should be pretty easy to detain someone, say, hey you didn’t leave on time and get them on a flight out. This doesn’t take months, especially if there’s some actual circumstances like this guy apparently had.
This type of behavior is going to stop international companies from doing any in person business with US companies. It’s disgusting.
Just stupid all around…
“You overstayed your welcome, buddy. Now instead of letting you go home, we’re going to keep you trapped here even longer.”
Do you want them to stay or to go? Make up your friggin’ mind! 😬
The goal is to make people afraid. Fear is a feature, just like violence.
While profiting off of it. Government contractors were paid for 100 days of related services for this poor fellow.
I’m waiting for the “we’re going to hold you in the country for staying in the country to long and hold you and extra day for every day you continue to be in the country”. At this point I wouldn’t put it past them. The cruelty is the point.
They’re trying to meet quotas, they don’t give a shit about anything else.
But at this point why even bother meeting the quotas? Can’t they just lie and tell everyone they deported 3 billion immigrants so that the racist rednecks will all cheer and smile?
It’s likely that both things are happening. I’m sure there are some that stretch the numbers but there are also others who revel in the cruelty.
I think people aren’t realizing, they’re racist af. They are actually doing nazi things all the fucking time now. They have actual concentration camps. The point is to get rid of anyone not white. Their lead nazi dude (white nationalist) is a Jewish person. It’s just as insane as the nazis too.
Edit: Also, to fill their prisons to hand out prison contracts and get slave labor. This is also a money grab.
Kolanaki, i guess you’re not really getting the point here. The point is intentional cruelty to demotivate these people to ever come to the US again.
You gotta be pretty in love to travel to a backwater nation like the US. Traveling to WV though, that’s beyond insanity.
Have you ever been to WV? It is incredibly beautiful.
Blame it to the country roads, I heard they take you there.
Love makes you do crazy things, I suppose.
Daily reminder (especially to my Canadian homies) for the love of fuck do NOT travel to the US. They have made it clear they dont want visitors and it isnt safe for us to go there.
Do not risk it. Find any other safe country to visit and go there instead. Or stay home and see your own country.
Or if you want to visit North America, may I suggest Canada? Its nice here and we have cool things to see too. Also you wont be detained for no reason and live for months in a cage.
And may I suggest Mexico? It’s a beautiful country full of wonderful food, music, and people. North America is a shit sandwich, but the bread on both ends is quite magnificent.
Yeah, never mind that the murder rate per 100k in Mexico is quadruple what it is in the “backwater” US (25.2 vs 6.3). It’s flawless and beautiful, and the US is just horrible and worse in every way than there and everywhere else, “shit”, as you said.
Wonder why so many people are trying to immigrate there, then, hm. Also, Mexico’s got more people trying to get out than get in, how strange.
Ah, what do all those people know, anyway? They’re just making the decision to completely uproot their lives and go to another country for fun, not because they’re desperate for a better life!
Please see my other comment about how the statistics can be misleading.
I am in no way saying that Mexico is utopia, they have their problems just like all countries do. Wealth inequality is a big problem. That doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t travel there though. If you are a traveler from outside of North America, no Mexican version of ICE is going to put you in Alligator Auschwitz.
Also, it is worth noting that many of the immigrants coming through Mexico are from South America, where there are even larger problems with poverty than in Mexico. Sure, plenty of Mexicans are coming too, but not all brown people are running from the same problem.
This is beautifully written. 🤌🤌
I hear the cartels are doing a great job on running things.
How many tourists to Mexico are having problems with cartels vs how many tourists to America are having problems with ICE?
Maybe they wouldn’t have so much power if the yanks weren’t busy buying them coke
Respectfully, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I live on the border, am in Mexico several times per week, and have traveled the country pretty extensively. Most areas of Mexico are as safe as any city in the rest of the western world as long as you’re not intentionally fucking around and finding out.
And I’ll say this—you’re way less likely to get a mass shooting at a Walmart in Mexico than you are to get one in America.
You’re literally 4 times more likely to be murdered in Mexico as in the US, according to both countries’ own statistics.
Edit: lol, imagine downvoting a plain fact.
Does this include school children?
I see what you’re implying. However:
Homicide has been the leading cause of death [in youths age 1-19] since 2017 in Mexico…it reached 6.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022.
But in Figure 1 here, it shows the rate among US children to be about 1.5 per 100,000, in the same year, 2022.
Children are, likewise re the general population, four times more likely to be murdered in Mexico as in the US.
Also worth pointing out that in 2022, the rate for only Mexican children (6.5) is greater than the rate for all ages in the US (6.3). That fact should speak volumes all on its own.
Those statistics can be misleading. I spend a huge amount of time in Ciudad Juarez, a city known for violence. What the base murder rate doesn’t tell you is that over 90% of the murders are by cartel members to other cartel members, which means that only 10% or less of the murders are happing to a random bystander.
Furthermore, Mexico has extremely strict weapons laws which means it is very unlikely for bystanders to get caught in the crossfire of a “good guy with a gun”.
That’s what I mean by you’re relatively safe if you aren’t fucking around and finding out—just like how New York City was a lot safer back in the day if you weren’t interacting with the mob.
I’ve been all over Juarez at literally every time of the day and night walking alone, and I’ve never been threatened by anyone. Just last night, I walked several miles totally alone at 2 AM. I’m not saying that nobody ever gets in hot water there, but it is far from a guaranteed danger. By contrast, I experienced many more threatening situations both day and night in NYC while spending about an equal amount of time there. I know these experiences are anecdotal, but they are also first hand accounts from someone who has actually been there rather than just reading the news.
And if you’re a tourist visiting a popular place like Roma Norte in Mexico City, you will not only be very safe, but you’d be hard pressed to not have an amazing time.
What the base murder rate doesn’t tell you is that over 90% of the murders are by cartel members to other cartel members, which means that only 10% or less of the murders are happing to a random bystander.
And what makes you think the type of murder breakdown isn’t similar in the US? Most of the murders there are gang violence etc. as well.
The fact that Mexico’s raw number of annual murders is higher than the US’s, despite being a much, much less populated country, is not something that can just be handwaved away.
There is a reason Mexico’s net migration rate is negative.
Fine, I’ll concede and move passed the murder rate.
We are talking about the risk to travelers. America currently has a government sponsored effort to detain people who are visiting here, sometimes even when they are here legally. Mexico is not doing that. The risk to travelers is pretty damn clear right now.
Edit: Just to be clear, I don’t think that the gang violence rate breaks down differently for the US—before this latest ICE takeover, I would have said it is safe for travelers here too.
Seconding this, I’ve had the great fortune to spend almost 18 months of my life in Mexico, visiting over 20 states. I’ve yet to feel unsafe in all that time. It’s an incredibly beautiful country with an extremely welcoming culture, stunning architecture and natural beauty, and unmatched cuisine. Mexico is a bucket list destination for sure.
Hell pretty sure we have more masked armed men shoving people into vans in the us now as well
I know several people with dual citizenship Canadian/U.S. who have moved from the U.S. to Canada in the past several months.
I just figured out a path for me to gain Mexican permanent resident and eventually Mexican citizenship if needed. It will take some time but with how this country is going, My wife and I need an escape route.
That’s an unusual situation. Normally, Mexicans are trying to get a US citizenship, not the other way around. In any case, I wonder how long does it take for US citizens to apply for political asylum elsewhere.
Mexican immigration rules from what I am seeing are very reasonable with clear processes and do not require a lawyer for most people. So you rarely hear about immigrants having issues. The entire process is relatively inexpensive as well.
To legally immigrate to the U.S. almost always requires a lawyer, the process is deliberately convoluted, and costs thousands of dollars in fees.
Applying for political asylum outside of the U.S., good luck. The burden of proof is quite high and costly. Most people will not qualify, yet…
https://www.relocate.world/articles/us-citizens-seeking-asylum
If you have an escape route available, I suggest getting it prepared now. Hopefully you won’t need it, but it’s better to be prepared than not.
If only the dumbfucks with the stupid slogans like “love it or leave it” knew just how difficult and costly it is to legally move to another country. Unless you have money, work in a high demand job or have family connections it’s fucking difficult or close to impossible to do.
Most of the dumbfucks have no way to legally move to any other country legally.
My partner and I made the decision to leave the day after inauguration. We’re comfortably in Canada now.
I hope that’s far enough. As a Canadian, I’m not so sure.
It was really our only choice. I have friends who went to Mexico and are also worried
Fam has researched the same things, but have worried that Mexcico might not be far enough.
Also some worry that the locals might take it out on expats if it becomes a war.
Tell people you’re Canadian
It’s aboot time someone came up with a good solution for that thanks!
Also some worry that the locals might take it out on expats if it becomes a war.
Learn Spanish, and hope they focus on the gringos that only speak 'Murican
Working on that for about a year I still suck
And he was locked up before Trump took office.
Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it
This applies to all aspects of the US “justice” system. Once it has a hold of you, it’s extremely hard to get out.
And he was locked up before Trump took office.
So you’re saying this happened under Biden? Not sure whether this is the dunk-on-Trump that people think it is >_>
While visiting his girlfriend Malone’s family in Savannah, Georgia, Thomas experienced a mental health episode. After a conflict in their hotel room, someone called the police. Though Malone didn’t support the charge, Thomas was arrested for allegedly “falsely imprisoning” her.
Yes, it was before, but, there is a little more to it. It was a mental health episode and the police were called. One would think they would just have an air marshall fly back home with him, But the US is really not good at mental health problems.
Regardless, imprisoning him for months is completely indefensible.
Should have been a psychiatric eval and a trip home. If it would have happened the month or two earlier probably would have went down like that. He had the bad luck to have a break and still be locked up when everything was getting DOGEd
I mean, how else do you expect the present industrial complex to make all the money that it does?
Shit, presents are evil now too
Who do you think makes all the gifts for Santa?
Nobody can hold a candle to ‘deporter-in-chief’ Obama. Secretly, the Democrats have been much harder and more effective on deportations and the border for decades.
Nobody can hold a candle to ‘deporter-in-chief’ Obama.
Have you been asleep for 6 months?
Going back through their history, looks like they’re REALLY into the democrats deport more people line, completely failing to realize the numbers for Biden and Obama are on a scale of years where the current administration is at about 100 days. Ignoring that due process was happening and It is not now, also ignoring the current tactic of ziptieing unprocessed people together and dropping them out of planes in to the pacific which is just straight murder.
Excuse me, can you elaborate on that last part? Dropping people outbound planes doesn’t pass the sniff test for me.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/01/trump-admin-deportees-spain/
Nothing Iron clad, but they strap people together in a peculiar manner and some corpses showed up strapped that way
Also some of the deportation flights have been watched via individuals using ADSB and they’re making flights to nowhere over the ocean and coming back. Again, nothing iron clad, but probably sniff worthy
Biden deported more people than trump first term. Your problem isn’t with the idea of deportation, it’s with the form lmao
Look, it wouldn’t surprise me at this point, it’s more or less just the next step, but where did you hear they were dropping people out of planes?
can’t find the newer one
snopes has some balanced coverage
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/01/trump-admin-deportees-spain/
Of course nothing is iron clad. We know how they’ve been strapping people together, for the flights. dead people strapped together that way showed up on a beach.
I guess we’ll have to wait until they’re identified but it’s bad enough that there’s the possibility, which is saying alot.
People being strapped that way, coming from another source, would be one hell of a coincidence.
Same with the people tracking the planes. Rear-hatched cargo planes out over the sea and back. That’s not even a test or training flight; you’d do that over land. Maybe the people are wrong. It would honestly be nice for this to be a red herring.
I don’t know why you act like I am defending Trump, I am only trying to point out that Democrats were still mass deporting people. Trump is historically evil and will probably blow the Obama/Biden numbers out once ICE gets the new budget. But, this has been standard US policy since 9/11 basically.
For example - https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trump-2-immigration-first-100-days or https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-deportation-record
While the government has not released official data in comprehensive fashion, based on Federal Register notices and selective information shared with news organizations it appears on track to deport roughly half a million people this year—fewer than the 685,000 deportations recorded in fiscal year (FY) 2024 under President Joe Biden.
My point is that Trump could easily accomplish the same thing if mass deportations was his chief goal, because the Democrats were already doing that. Biden deported 685k in one year according to the Federal Register, if you want to discount the source and provide other numbers that is fine. I’m not trying to argue tactics, because frankly what the Dems and GOP have been doing (at least since 9/11) related to deportations and immigration has been illegal to unconstitutional in a variety of ways. Claiming asylum under international law is a defined legal process and even Obama and Biden were not following that process.
Look even at the article this thread is in, this Irish tourist was jailed when Biden was President for overstaying his VISA for 3 days, even though he wanted to leave. That is pretty horrible behavior. Again, not saying Trump is better by any means, easily he is far worse.
We know. We know that Democrats also deported people. They went after actual criminals (and I guess people who had overstayed their visa), and the people had due process.
They were not being hunted on job sites, outside of their immigration hearings (you know, “doing it the right way”), Home Depot parking lots, etc. They were not sending people to a concentration camp in a third country that the person has zero connection to.
So when people constantly feel the need to “both sides” this issue, it comes off as ignorant (at best. More likely just being disingenuous). When it’s the same person again and again (according to another reply), then it starts to seem like a pattern…
It shouldn’t need to be fucking said that what’s happening right now is not precedented in this country. The closest thing would be Japanese internment camps, but I believe this is far worse.
Failing to hold Democrats accountable for their own behavior by focusing only on Trump will only allow the Democrats to follow this downward spiral. The Democratic party doesn’t see the evil in their own past behavior and that’s a key part of why they cannot effectively counter Trump with any of this.
Yeah just ignore everything I said, I guess.
And that excuses the inhuman trash breaking into homes with explosives to drag parents from their children?
I didn’t say that. I was only pointing out how bad the Democrats have been, while not needing to go to the current ICE tactics. Holman was brought to us by Obama even. We’ve gone past the point where the deportations are the point; it’s the fear and repression of the entire population. And we’ve not even seen the half of it once ICE gets its new budget, it will get much worse!
Wonder how much it cost to keep him instead of just let him back to Ireland. Bunch of cunts
With these assholes it’s not about money, it’s about cruelty.
Oh sure, but they’ll continually claim until they’re blue in the face that everything they do is about money. So they should be continually exposed as the financially irresponsible idiots that they are.
For the people where egregious human rights violations and terrorism aren’t deal breakers, wasting money is. Frankly I don’t respect their opinion, however, they also vote, therefore their opinion does matter.
It’s both. They are unequivocally profiting from the cruelty.
I still think it’s about money, especially considering the size of the prison industrial complex. It just so happens that capitalism encourages cruelty when it’s profitable.
Sure it cost the taxpayers something, but that went directly into the pockets of the for-profit prison company. So you see, this is actually great for the economy!
They’re paid in how many teeth they can pull out with rusty pliers. Compensation isn’t always in hard cash, you know.
For your own personal safety, never travel to the United States.
Never travel to countries where the secret police just kidnap people off the streets.
Every country should have travel warnings against visiting the Untied States
Canada doesn’t even have any new warnings. They have the regular “gun ownership” and stuff they’ve had for years, but not a single word about the new administration. US travel is still listed as “green”. Travel to the UK is “yellow” for fuck’s sake.
Yes, according to the Canadian government, it is less safe to travel to the UK than it is to the US. And that’s after admitting that about 55 Canadian citizens are in US custody at any given time.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadians-ice-detention-1.7577584
Our government is failing in their responsiblity on this. Makes my blood boil that they still are walking on eggshells with the us.
Agreed. They’re neglecting their duty to warn us of the dangers of traveling to the US.
I fear unless something is done that Carney will go down in history as a modern day Chamberlain.
Ridiculous
Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia
See? That’s the problem here.
Really, people, do NOT go to the US.
Do NOT follow the country roads.
I can’t go home…
What about the mountain mommas?
I’d be interested to see what Republican policies have done to the US tourism industry. I know it’s taking a hit, but how much I’m not sure. I know I wouldn’t come here by choice.
Completely crushed the industry…95 billion dollars loss projected this year
And that’s with people going on trips they planned a year ago. 2026 will see tourist towns turn into ghost towns.
that’ll teach them nasty foreigners
And in completely unrelated news, why can’t I get cheap fresh produce any more? Where did my favorite taco truck go???
where’s my MacArthur Park ice cream vendor?
I don’t know, but someone left the cake out in the rain.
I don’t even want to travel within the country. Or leave it if I had to come back.
I’m in a red state tourist town and our overall visitation is down over 30%. That said, international visitors only account for about 3% of tourism in this state, so there’s much more involved with that loss than just the international travel.
Inflation caused by corporate greed kills people’s ability to take vacations for some reason.
I know I’m not trying to visit any red states anytime soon. I have some inlaws in red states and they better stay alive and healthy for the next 3.5 years or I will be FaceTimeing into any familial obligations
Gonna be even worse now too with the National Park Service cuts: there are so many foreign tourists at the parks. As there should be too! Our National Parks are amazing!
Our National Parks are amazing!
For now.
Until they have open pit mines and clear cut logging.
People are only still going to the states because they had trips planned before the shit hit the fan. Once those trips are over, tourism to the states will be near zilch
I am a citizen and live in the states, once I finish my planned US vacations this year, I am exclusively going to vacation in other counties.
I don’t want to support the country with any more money than I have to to live and survive
deleted by creator
